NPA keeps mum over allegation of secret recruitment exercise

…as workers petition presidency for probe

By FUNSO OLOJO

The management team of Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) has continued to maintain sealed lips over the allegation of secret recruitment of staff it carried out last year, thus defying all entreaties by some agitating workers and stakeholders to extract official position of the agency on the vex issue.

It was gathered that the agency conducted a discreet employment of about 100 job seekers who were predominantly from a section of the country.

According to an impeccable source, about 90 percent of those discreetly employed are from the North and employed with Senior School Certificates qualification while the remaining ones who are from the South were employed on First Degree Certificate qualification.

All calls and text messages sent to three top media officers at the agency’s Corporate and Strategic Communication department led by  Abdullahi Goje, were not answered.

However, the silence being maintained by the management which some stakeholders considered as official conspiracy has enraged a cross section of the NPA workers who have dragged the Hadiza Usman-led management team to the Presidency.

In their petition to President Buhari dated December 28^th, 2017, and titled ‘’Request for investigation into the allegations of Secret Recruitment at the NPA by the present management’’, the agitating workers pleaded with the presidency to institute a probe into the matter.

In the petition, the workers stated “We wish to request that Your Excellency institutes a probe into this unwholesome practice by the present NPA management so as to uphold the tenets of the present administration.

‘’While we fully support the need to inject fresh blood and young hands into NPA, this must be done transparently and in accordance with statutory provisions. All Nigerians must be given equal opportunity to apply and be considered on merit for such employment in the Authority.

“As an agency of the Federal Government, NPA is bound to abide by rules pertaining to employment into the federal civil service and the Federal Character Commission.

“To ensure adherence to these provisions of the law, the Federal Character Commission established clear-cut guidelines for MDAs to follow in their recruitment processes. These procedures include the requirement that the spread of all vacancies to be filled shall be predetermined in relation to the current levels of federal character representation by states or zones, at a joint meeting of the agency and the FCC.

“NPA management is also required to ensure, and provide comprehensive job description (academic qualifications and cognate experience) required for each vacant position. All vacancies must also be advertised in at least two newspapers circulating nationally, giving prospective candidates, a minimum of six weeks within which to apply.

“We, however, note disturbing media reports and protests in certain parts of the country, which suggest that the process of ongoing recruitments in NPA has neither been transparent nor have been in compliance with statutory provisions. For instance, some youths protested in Kano on November 9, 2017, alleging that secret interviews and recruitment were being conducted at Tahir Guest House without public knowledge.

“Obviously, if the recruitment process had been made open and transparent, no section of the Nigerian society would have had cause to embark on such protest. Indeed, we have it on good ground that those who were invited to the interview at Tahir Guest House were only privileged children of the affluent in the society.”

The workers stated that while they were not opposed to the employment of new hands into the organization, the process should be done transparently with all qualified Nigerians given equal opportunity to participate.

Similar secret recruitment which caused public outrage was carried out at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), FIRS and DSS last year.